Pot in the Parks

You want to know why Park cops carry sidearms? Of the many reasons, one of them is to protect themselves from criminals growing drugs inside the park system. There is even a story today about money from the pot grown in Yosemite helping to fund meth. labs in other parts of California! In some parks, these growers protect their plants with rifles and traps. Yikes! Of course, these operations wouldn't be seen by the typical visitor to these natural areas. The operations are generally on the fringes of the park boundaries, and are only discovered by Park Rangers doing a boundary patrol. The National Park Service has over 84 million acres within it's "walls". That equates to a lot of boundaries.